Heartache by the Number

Steps...

(1) Cass is drowning her sorrows at the Mojave Outpost. Her advice? Go work for the Crimson Caravan. (2) Pitch in at the Crimson Caravan company if you're looking for caravan work. (3) Return to Cass and see if you can get her to part with the title for Cassidy Caravans. (4) Pay your respects with Cass at her caravan's grave. (5) Investigate the wreckage of the Griffin Wares caravan with Cass. (6) Track down Durable Dunn's missing caravan with Cass. (7) Investigate the Crimson Caravan for reasons behind the attack. (8) Investigate the Silver Rush in Freeside for evidence on the Van Graff's guilt.

Important Items...

Antivenom (x2), Bottle Caps, Fixer, Laser Rifle Focus Optics.

This side quest is a little bit complicated. It's not that its premise of the side quest itself is hard to comprehend, and you won't really encounter any issues getting through the side quest from beginning to end. Where things get complicated is how this side quest intimately intertwines with another side quest, notably the Side Quest known as You Can Depend On Me . In that side quest, you'll find yourself working for the Crimson Caravan, and one of the tasks you will get is to speak to a woman named Cass at the Mojave Outpost, in order to purchase the rights to her caravan company. But you can run into Cass more organically at this outpost as well, which is where this particular side quest will begin in earnest.

When you speak to Cass at the Mojave Outpost (an NCR-controlled location in the far southwestern edge of the map), you'll learn a little bit about this woman's plight. You'll find her in one of the two intact buildings at the outpost, sitting at a bar, drowning her many sorrows. Cass is off-putting at first, giving you nothing but attitude. But as you speak with her more, you'll learn about how she lost many of her friends when her caravan was ruthlessly attacked. She barely escaped with her life, and now she's holed-up here in NCR territory, drinking whiskey and not giving a damn about anything else. She'll give you a tip, that you should go work for the Crimson Caravan. This is where the You Can Depend On Me side quest comes into play. As part of that quest, the Crimson Caravan will tell you to return to Cass to try to purchase her Caravan Company. It's at this point that you should try to convince Cass to join you as a follower, only after requiring the rights to her company. Doing so will require fairly high statistics, whether in terms of Speech or Barter, so keep that in mind, and return to continue this side quest later if you need to level up a bit.

Once you've convinced Cass to sell the Caravan Company (as part of the You Can Depend On Me side quest ), you can then easily get her to join you as a follower, and this side quest can then continue unabated thereafter. You may be confused as to how to get things going from here, since your side quest prompts won't update, strangely. You'll need to actually speak to Cass again once she's a follower, and she'll tell you that she would really like to locate the caravan that was sacked. Agree to her request, and the location of Cassidy Caravans Wreckage will show up on your map.

Cassidy Caravans Wreckage will be located to the northeast of the Mojave Outpost. It's pincered in between the Grub n' Gulp Rest Stop to the northeast, and REPCONN Headquarters to the south. So you could easily quick-travel to each of those locations and then walk to your destination rapidly. No one is left alive at the wreckage site -- not even the Brahmin pulling the wagon -- but Cass will find something that interests her. It's an indication that another attack has occurred on another caravan. To continue the side quest, Cass will request that you go check out that wreckage site as well. Agree to do so, but before taking off, be sure you search the wreckage of the caravan for some Bottle Caps and other goods you may want.

The next wreckage site, known as Griffin Wares Sacked Caravan, is located to the northwest of Cassidy Caravans Wreckage. The Horowitz Homestead is to the east of this second caravan, and the Followers Safehouse is to the west. Feel free to quick-travel to either of those locations to make your walk far, far shorter. Otherwise, you may want to teleport to New Vegas and go from there. When you arrive, you'll find wreckage very similar to the previous location's. You can pick up some Bottle Caps and Psycho from the wreckage, and even a Plasma Rifle. It's the latter item that's really important, since it gives you a clue as to who might have perpetrated these crimes. But then again, Cass still needs to see more to draw any concrete conclusions.

Following the events at the Griffin Wares Sacked Caravan, Cass will want to explore Durable Dunn's Sacked Caravan, which is located far to the east, on the other side of New Vegas. You could easily quick-travel to a location like the Crimson Caravan Company, and simply walk in a southeasterly direction to run squarely into the caravan you seek. You'll find a dead Brahmin and some dust piles underneath a bridge, but it's at sea level next to the bridge that you'll find a really important piece of evidence. There, you'll uncover a corpse belonging to the Van Graffs. That explains all of the dust piles (since they love using energy weapons). Crimson Caravans is also intimately involved in whatever's going on here. Obviously, someone's going to have to pay. You can speak to Cass at this point. She wants to take the guns-blazing approach, but that's not a good idea (though it's certainly an option). It'll scuttle your chances of completing more side quests for both groups, and chances are, you won't have a chance to survive that kind of conflict regardless. Instead, opt to search for evidence that ties the Van Graffs and/or the Crimson Caravan to these crimes. If anything, your peaceful approach will make the NCR happy.

Let's get the simple heist out of the way first. Head to the Crimson Caravan facility. Since you technically have to complete a task for the Crimson Caravan in order to get this far in this particular side quest, that location should have already been added to your map. All you have to do is quick-travel there. Once there, go inside the main office building, where the Crimson Caravan's proprietor, Alice, sits at her desk. The idea here is to use the in-game wait option to go to the middle of the night, where Alice leaves the office. Once you're in the office alone, use your lockpicking skills to pick open the safe to the side of her desk. Once the safe has been successfully cracked, you can claim the evidence needed on the Crimson Caravan's involvement in the caravan disappearances. That's part one

Part two will require us to visit the Silver Rush Gambling Hall, which is located in Freeside. Freeside, as you know, is the dilapidated area surrounding the New Vegas Strip. You've likely been there already, so you should know how to navigate those rough streets easily enough. The Silver Rush is located in the sector of Freeside closest to the Strip. The thing is, you have to be careful when entering. Since the owners of this building are important to completing other side quests, you don't want to get on their bad side. At the front entrance, activate a Stealth Boy and hand over your weapons to the guard at the door. Then, enter the building. Stay crouched and work your way to the far end of this initial room, where you'll find a locked door. This locked door requires a considerable lockpicking skill to get open, but once you do, you'll find an office on the other side. There's a safe in front of a desk in this office, one that also requires a high lockpicking skill (though if you picked the door, you should be able to pick this lock, too). Claim some items within the safe, including Antivenom, Bottle Caps and Fixer. The most important item you grab here, however, is a letter which will act as the second and final piece of evidence we need to wrap this side quest up.

With the evidence in hand garnered from both the Crimson Caravan and the Silver Rush, you can finally speak to an NCR representative to get an investigation into these crimes' perpetrators started. The man you want to visit is none other than Ranger Jackson, the ranking officer at the Mojave Outpost at the southwestern edge of the world map, the same place where you found Cass earlier. Track the ranger down and tell him you have evidence in regard to all of those missing Caravans you earlier scouted. Impressed by your hard work (yet distressed by the violence), Ranger Jackson promises to look into these brutal murders and bring those responsible to justice. He also makes you vow not to seek violent retribution against the perpetrators. Agree with him to end the side quest successfully, keeping in mind that you could have very well been lying all the while.